Dear Colleagues,

Preterm births are estimated to account for approximately 11% of all deliveries each year, and prematurity represents the leading worldwide cause of neonatal mortality and childhood mortality up to an age of five years. Despite advances in intensive neonatal care, the rates of neonatal morbidity remain high, calling for new care strategies to improve neonatal health outcomes.

Providing care for preterm infants requires 1) improving prenatal care, 2) devising new strategies to improve survival for periviable infants, 3) identifying care bundles aiming at reducing the risk of adverse outcomes for extremely low-gestational-age infants, 4) defining care guidelines for the growing population of late preterm infants and 5) offering palliative care pathways for treatable-but-not-curable pathologies.

To further the progress in preterm infants care, the application of translational medicine could offer new strategies for morbidity prevention and treatment, while the use of artificial intelligence could offer new diagnostic and monitoring tools.

This Special Issue of Children aims to collect the results of scientific research to help clinicians improve their care for preterm newborns. Therefore, we wish for a precious collaboration and look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Simonetta Costa
Guest Editor

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• preterm infants
• preterm birth
• prenatal care
• extremely low-gestational-age infants
• periviable infants
• late preterm infants
• neonatal intensive care
• palliative care
• translational medicine
• artificial intelligence
• neonatal outcomes
• prevention
• care bundles